Flyers Select Matvei Michkov With The 7th Overall Pick

The Philadelphia Flyers have entered a New Era of Orange and with their first draft pick they have selected Matvei Michkov!!

Flyers fans could not have asked for a better outcome to last nights first round of the NHL Draft. Arguably the 2nd best prospect out of this years class fell right into the Flyers lap at the 7th pick.

New GM Danny Briere and President Keith Jones must have been licking their chops as Matvei Michkov name continued not to be called.

When the Flyers were finally on the clock they stepped up to the plate and sent this one into the third deck of Citizens Bank Park.

Michkov has been playing in the top league in Russia for almost three years now and has been fitting in just fine. So why exactly did he fall all the way to 7th when he probably should have been selected at 2?

Short version is he’s Russian and teams were concerned that he might not be able to come over for a few seasons he also made it known that he only wanted to play for one team…

During his draft interviews Michkov was making it known that he did not have the motivation to play for the teams that were interviewing him that weren’t the Flyers.

Now, he gets his wish and the Flyers after not properly tanking nearly blowing their chance at getting a high end talent end up with what could be the best player to come out of this years draft.

It also might not be that long before he comes to play in the NHL after all…

I’m not expert but sure doesn’t sound like a guy that’s not going to be playing in the NHL until 2026.

Sure, there is probably a lot that goes into getting him out of his contract with SKA St. Petersburg. But based on some of his responses in the interviews after getting drafted it feels like we could see him a lot sooner.

In my opinion there’s no need to rush him to come over. The Flyers are in rebuild mode and sure having him in the lineup would be exciting but the Flyers need to focus on having another high pick come next June as they continue to do this rebuild the right way.

The longer he stays over there the longer the Flyers have him under their control at a decent price. Worst case he doesn’t come over until he is 22 and at that point the Flyers should have a solid core to go along with him and have an even bigger window to win a Stanley Cup. Michkov already has his eyes on the best trophy in all of sports.

This kid is hungry to win and on a team that was in desperate need of a culture change these are the exact kind of things you want to hear from a young upcoming player.

Michkov wasn’t the only player selected by the Flyers last night. With the 22nd overall pick the Flyers selected Right handed defenseman Oliver Bonk. While there were still some other high end forwards on the board, Bonk gives the Flyers more depth on the right side which was much needed. Bonk still needs to develop but he has the size at 6’2 176lbs and he could be a great fit on the Flyers blue line in a few years. The good thing is the Flyers have the time to be able to let him develop and not have to rush him into the NHL.

Round 2-7 of the NHL Draft is today starting at 11am.The Flyers currently have 8 picks to make. No trades were made during the draft throughout the league which was very surprising given all the information that was coming out leading up to the first round. Day 2 could shape up to be an interesting one and we will see what Danny Briere and the Flyers have in store.

Make sure to follow @FlyersFanLife on Twitter for all your Flyers updates.

-Walsh

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By Keith Walsh | June 29, 2023
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